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Behind the Curtain

Efficiency and Technology Wage a Constant
War,
And the Costly, High-Tech Option Usually Wins

By

Bruce Orwall

Updated March 19, 1998 12:01 a.m. ET

E PIC FILMMAKERS OF yore had their reasons for letting the budget run amok. The 1959 classic "Ben Hur" required 300 individual sets, including a chariot-race arena that took 1,000 workers more than a year to build and then had to be stuffed with 8,000 extras and 40,000 tons of sand. Such touches pushed the cost of the movie to $12.5 million, a princely sum at the time.

When the inevitable "Ben Hur" remake comes along someday, it'll be virtual horses and digital chariots that collide and lock wheels, not...